Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-01-14
WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH
London Pail Mall Gazette.

kee, and seem to look upon it as phrase
of his own invention, forgetful or una
ware of the fact that early in the seven
teenth century it was in common use,as.
indeed, it had been as early as the four
tenth. Is it not employed as the Amer
cans employ it in Chaucer's line?
"of twenty years of age he was, guessed"
and in Shakespeare's
"Better, far, guess,
That we do make our entrance several ways.
Henry VI H., l."
When our cousins puzzle us by speak
ing of the "fall" instead of the ''autumn."
they are again using good seventeenth
century English. Dryden has
"What crowds of patients the town doctor
kills,
Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills"
The word "sick," which the Americans
use where most of us use the word GIL"
had the meaning they assign to it in the
days of Chaucer, of Shakespeare and of
Pope. Where we speak of a person as
being plain the Americans would describe
him as homely, once more retaining a
perfectly classical usage. In Millions
"Comos" we have:
ut is for homely features to keep home
They had their name thence"
The verb "to white" most people.
probably, would pronounce to be a new
ly-coined word; but it is not so. John
son gives an example of its use from
"llakewith of Providence a book
which was published in 1927. 1t Isl
good word, having no equivalent in the
language, and those who have preserved
it have done wisely. The substantive
"whittle, signifying knife, is found in
Shakespeare ("1'imon of Athens" V. y,
but seems to have died out not long after.
''Slick," again, we should at first sight
imagine to be undoubtedly of Yankee
manufacture, but we should be quite
wrong. Chapman 0603) describes the
god Apollo as ''both slicke and daintie."
and later on in the century we find the
word used by Sir Thomas Browne and
Fuller. The former speaks of slick
st0nes-i e., smooth stones. A familiar
form of salutation which one hears some
times in the States, "How dye" is not
of native growth, but has the sanction of
no less writer than Pope. "Years
make men more talkative," he saws, sbut
less writative, so that now write no let
tiers but of plain business, or plain how
dyes, to those few | am forced to CORES
pond with"
In the case of 'cute" we have in the
same word an instance of the legitimate
preservation of by-gone usage and the
understandable Introduction of novelty.
When Americans use it in the sense of
'clever," sharp" they can show that it
was so employed in the past; but when
in the sense of ''pretty," they can do no
such thing. Many of the fair sex use the
word with its latter meaning to an exas-
perating extent "Ain't he cute?" YOU
will hear whole chorus exclaim as they
gaze in raptures.on some baby; or, again
"What cute little dresses Other ex-
amples of old words that would have died
out and been lost to the language had
WAY NV pNNii won SdlCu lOl III lIltlI new
Transatlantic home might easily be cited
''Freshet," truly described by the Arch
bishop Trench as an exquisite word. is
one of them; it is used by Milton.
GAN fish from sea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook"
Another is ''bluf1'' formerly, however.
used as an adjective &c. g. "a bluff penin-
sular prominence'O whereas this Ameri-
cans-followed by our own Tennvson.
s'round the hills from bluff to bluff"-em-
ploy it as a substantive; others are
"snag," ii word which we meet with in
Spenser and in Dryden; "rie," the same
as roll, an old verb signifying to disturb,
or vex, and found in Chaucer.
The use of the formal sir when address
ing stranger or person with whom one
has only slight acquaintance is another
instance of the retention by the Ameri-
cans of past modes of speech. Good il
Illustrations of this particular custom, a.
it existed at the time that the New
World was being colonized. are found in
the "Compleat Angler" whose author
died in the year in which Philadelphia
was founded by Penn. Such sentences
as the following are constantly occurring:
"Sir, shall by your favor bear your
company As far as TheObald's." "Sir.
my fortune has answered my Desires =
81 am, sir. "A brother of the angle" and
so on.
1t is evident, then, that many so-called
Americanisms, so far from being arbi-
trary novelties, have the clearest right to
be regarded as "English undetiled."
The man who composed The Arkan-
saw Traveller" is dead. His name was
Joseph Tosso. He died at Covington.